It's Hot

One can dash from the air conditioned company Land Rover into the hopefully air conditioned rooms of our dilapidated hotel, or into the frisky Arco trailer offices at our temporary hangar, but that African heat will catch you somewhere.  The power often goes out, and the heat quickly builds, or the cleaning ladies, locals who have a morbid fear of air con, turn it off while cleaning one's room and forget to turn it back on, and it can take two hours to get the place back to an acceptable state, and there's always flying.  Sure we can claw our way up above the clouds and get into reasonable temperatures for the enroute portion of our trip, but it is far better to embrace the heat, like one embraces our Canadian cold.  Sure you can stay at home and hibernate, but think of all the skating and snowshoeing and cross country skiing and rabbit hunting one could be enjoying.  Granted I've been a little leery of cranking up my internal temperature pounding out single track in the hills on my mountain bike, but put on a hat and some shades and walk to the beach.  We've got a few ten kilometre hiking routes through town, stopping occasionally at road side shops, little more than rough shod booths in the shade, and enjoy some ginger beer (non-alcoholic), and best avoid going mid-day.  Accept that you will be soaked throughout by nine in the morning and remain that way all day, and drink lots and lots of water.  This is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and even the locals complain of the heat.  I just remind myself,  it is Africa.

I've had various opportunities presented to me recently, but none involve SAR.  They are all in places with a far higher standard of living than I'm presently exposed to, and much less risk.  We are off to Mombasa again shortly, and radicals are making the headlines daily; acid attacks, beheadings of moderates, grenades thrown at Westerners, security is a very serious concern, but I like Africa.  Everything one does is fraught with risk, and death is imminent for all of us, so there's not much sense in worrying about it.  I have considered the opportunities presented, and I still might make a move, but at present, I'd miss the SAR flying too much, the hoisting, the hovering, the low level circuits, the actual flying of a helicopter, as opposed to the routine passenger transfers to the exploration platforms, the operating procedures mimicking airline travel.  SAR flying is thee best flying I've done since my days of slinging drill rods over Canadian tundra, many, many years ago.  I think I'll hang out in Africa for a little longer.......